The board of trustees for the South East Cornerstone Public School Division have accepted the resignation of their director of education, Marc Casavant.
Board chairman Harold Laich, told the Mercury on Feb. 12 that the resignation "caught us a little bit by surprise, but not entirely because when we hired Marc he said he would give us a commitment of at least five years and he has done that and we have appreciated his work and the significant contributions he has made to the division.
"Somehow I thought we'd be able to sign him for another three years or so, but I think there might be family considerations or other factors involved that only Marc will be able to speak to, I can't speculate," Laich added.
The announcement of the pending resignation, which isn't going to take effect until July 31, gives the board ample time to find a replacement.
The board just recently approved a motion to add a deputy director's position to the senior administration team while eliminating two superintendent positions to accommodate the move within the budget. Lynn Little, superintendent of education for the division, was named to that post just a few weeks ago.
Laich said that Casavant was totally in favour of and supported this administrative move so he doubted that would have been a catalyst behind the director's decision.
"Primarily, I believe family priorities are involved and Marc has decided to move on to the Prairie Valley School Division as their deputy director."
The Prairie Valley system is headquartered in Regina and, serves 38 schools in the nearby eastern rural areas and is about the same size as South East Cornerstone in terms of employees and total student enrolment numbers. The director of education there is Ben Grebinski.
"When I say we were a bit surprised, we also knew he was interested in moving on too, we just weren't certain as to when," said Laich.
"In no way was it a push or a shove by the board or any member of the board and I'm sure we didn't sense any negativity from Marc toward the board. At times we've had tough questions for him but he has always responded in a fair and professional manner and I genuinely feel there was no tension between us. It is just a decision he and his family have made and the board is meeting again for a regularly scheduled meeting on Feb. 20, so we'll look at the time line and begin the search for another director. This will be a good time to re-evaluate our administrative structure that's in place and then see what happens. I expect the board will be advertising by the end of February and will have someone in place soon," said Laich.
"Really, Marc has done some very good work for us. We've seen so many positive changes, but we also know that nothing goes on forever."
Casavant was hired as the director of education in 2009 following the resignation of previous director Don Rempel who moved on to a director's role in the Tisdale/Nipawin region, which was his previous home base.
"I am grateful for the opportunity to have served the South East Cornerstone Public School Division over the past five years and have enjoyed the working relationships formed, initiatives undertaken and the progress made in creating opportunities for the success and achievement of all students," said Casavant. "I am looking forward to continuing the work of education in this province and collaborating with the partners in education to improve educational outcomes of our students. This new role represents a positive move towards furthering my career goals and provides more opportunities for my family to pursue personal and professional interests," Casavant said.
SECPSD captured the Premier's Board of Education Award in 2012, which was based on innovation and excellence in education.
